R.I.P. Andy Williams

Andy Williams, one of the most popular television crooners of the 1960s, known for “Moon River”, has died after a year-long fight against bladder cancer, as NPR reports. He was 84.

Along with his signature song, Williams was known for his Christmas television specials throughout the 1970s and 80s. He had 18 gold records, three platinum ones, and an Emmy-winning television series, “The Andy Williams Show”. The program was televised throughout the 1960s until 1971; it featured Williams performing his catalogue and chatting with such guests as the Beach Boys, Ray Charles, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, and Elton John…

Williams hosted award shows throughout the years, including several years of the Grammys. He continued performing throughout his life at his own Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri.
The singer had no retirement plans. “The old cliche says that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t there,” Williams one said (via The New York Daily News). “Well, I was there all right, but my memory of them is blurred– not by any drugs I took, but by the relentless pace of the schedule I set myself.”

Williams is survived by his wife and three children, who asked that donations in his memory be sent to the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network.